What kind of smartphone should I buy?

I have never owned a smartphone and the only touchscreen device I have ever owned is my Vita. My current phone is a Pantech flip-phone that no longer has its back battery cover. It is so busted up/old that my co-workers laugh at me whenever I use it. So I feel it is time to finally upgrade and I need your guys' advice. I plan to mainly text, use facebook and finally get into twitter/snapchat. Maybe play some games? What kind of smartphone should I buy?

Fun Fact: I have logged in more then 1,100 matches of Tetris Vs.on this phone with 834 of them being wins.

I say a Samsung Galaxy, those are great phones and run cheaper (?) than the iPhone that will be suggested at some point

Think about what you want from a phone and do your research to find what fits your needs. Are you currently invested in an ecosystem? Do you use google, apple or microsoft services? Do you want to be able to tinker with roms and have that flexibility or do you want something that is well supported with apps and service information? There's something out there for everyone, I'm currently rocking a Nexus 5 and liking it after an Iphone 4S and I'll never go back to the apple ecosystem but if I was deeply invested in apps then I probably wouldn't have left. I've also tinkered with Windows Phone and didn't hate it. Start with The Wirecutter and go from there.

For all the social media stuff its more or less irrelevant what you buy. In terms of apps/games, the best typically come to iPhone first/only so that's something to consider. Android phones will give you better maps but if you live in a major urban area there's no discernible difference. If you want all the latest and greatest stuff like Year Walk then get an iPhone. If you want to tinker/play with roms get a Galaxy.

Does anybody have anything good to say about the Windows Phone? I saw this one that has a really good camera and have been thinking about getting that one.

@acidbrandon18: They're pretty great by themselves, but if you're already into the Apple or Google ecosystems it's not worth the trouble (basics like email work thanks to standards, but the two companies barely acknowledge it when it comes to releasing services and similar stuff, so no easily syncing your iTunes music or Chrome bookmarks with it). At least it's mostly caught up with features and the big apps now.

Go to a store and try some demo units to get a feel for what size you want. Iphone has the most games and get them first for the most part. Android has a lot of games and most other apps to and is more open and can be customized a lot more. windows phone is quick and easy to use but it lacks in the games and apps compared to the other two. Most android phone companies are releasing a new top model in the next month or two so last years model should be a bit cheaper in a month or so. (galaxy s4, HTC one, etc)

HTC is announcing the follow up the HTC one sometimes this month so I'd wait to check that out. I have one and never had any complaints about it, minus blown speakers....

No. I own one and they aren't great. I say if it's your first smartphone, you might not notice what is wrong with them though. If you are interested in a WP, the best time to get one is if it's your first smartphone. Otherwise, you'll just notice it lacks a lot of basic functionality. I had been using Android before and WP is a large step backwards from that.

I'm personally not into Apple products, but if you are okay with them, the iPhone is an obvious good choice. Otherwise, get the Galaxy S5 or maybe an Xperia.

It's not Android, which is pretty good.

Ummmm...WP8 is a pretty amazing phone OS. I own a Lumia 1520 (having owned an iPhone and HTC One previously and currently use a Samsung tablet), and in terms of delivering relevant information to ke at a quick glance, the Nokia wins hands down. And the camera is amazing (and its not even the 41 MP beast in the 1020). Also...offline GPS maps. I live in Oregon...we have mountains...I usually only need GPS when I'm out of cell range. It has its faults (Google and MSFT don't get along...), but I can't imagine going back to another phone OS anytime soon.

@acidbrandon18: I've really enjoyed my Lumia 920 and 1020. You probably should think about what would probably be the things you use your phone for most often. For me it's camera, maps and music. The Lumia 1020 has the best camera I've used on any phone, Nokia's Ovi maps are pretty great and I don't have to use iTunes for the music player. But if you're more interested in games for example then iOS or Android could be better options for you. Although you do get achievement points from Windows Phone games.

EDIT: Oh and I forgot to mention how handy OneDrive and Office are on WP8. I have to use PowerPoint, Excel, Word etc. every day because of my studies, and being able to edit and look at all my documents on my phone is pretty great. I regularly prepare for my PowerPoint presentations on the tram for example.

@isomeri: Music? On WP? That sounds crazy to me. It doesn't support a lot of music formats and you can't even adjust the timeline slider to skip through the track.

But then, my demands of a music player are so large that I actually still use a dedicated music player separate of my phone anyway.

I own a lumia 520 and love it completely. My major reason for buying it was its slick interface and style. The android phones always look like the same old boring potato interface across all brands and models. Same for iPhone.

I love the mix radio (music player) too. Really beautiful interface and cool features. I could post some screens but I'm a little lazy.

The phone does cool things like using your favorited photos as large backgrounds for the photos app etc.

So if you really enjoy customization and beautiful interfaces then WP might be worth taking a look at. You can research the specifications by yourself obviously.

An android one so you can get all the games free via sideloading. Then complain no one makes games for android.

Choosing a phone these days is also choosing a platform. How's the app environment on Windows Mobile? Since most people use their smartphone more as portable computer than phone, a health app store should be a key factor. Your investment into a platform, especially if you pay for apps and get into it, is something you'll grow into and getting out becomes a heavier decision later.

Just stay away from android, buggy as hell.

I'm still rockin a samsung gravity so as someone who still in the position you were in I'd just go for whatever you can get for cheap and has some good reviews. I'm not into any social media and am not interested in any mobile games, having the power to look up anything anytime is cool but a lot of times it's not that important and for stuff that are chances are someone around me can just tell me. And for music I just use my old nano, even at 23 and as computer savvy as I am I'm still old school about a lot of things so I'd say anything is an improvement so just find something that works and you'll be fine. If you find yourself wanting a certain feature or OS then you'll have a better idea of where to go next.

I usually hate joining in on these topics 'cause it's all down to what you prefer in the end, but those two points are so horrendously wrong it's not even funny.

Windows Phone is not in anyway customisable. It's really nice to look at and smooth to use, but it's not customisable at all. (it is more so than an iPhone though) And Yo dude you can make your specific Android phone look so different to the next dude's Android phone.

I have an iPhone and have had the last 3 generations of iPhones. Never had a problem, they've lasted long enough to be passed down to my fiancee who also has never had a problem. Well she did drop nail polish on the last one so I had to convince the phone company to give her another one.

I just find apple makes things easy and simple. Yes your gonna pay for it but, if i can get my fiancee an iPhone 5c just to continue her contract I'm sure anyone can.

If you like Windows Phone, WPCentral is the place to find out all the good stuff. I.e. Apps, news, games, forums, etc. News is that Microsoft's BUILD Conference 2014 is April 2nd this year. They're supposed to unveil the release date of Windows Phone 8.1.

WMPowerUser is also very good, and generally has more rumours type of news.

My next phone is probably gonna be a Nokia WP8.1, or Sony Windows Phone.

I've also seen interesting news on a supposed Windows Phone 8.5 update.

Cortana is confirmed to be included in WP 8.1, their digital assistant you could talk to.

A Windows® Phone 8. The new update is going to make a way better.

No. It depends on the phone. As there is no real low cost equivalent to the iPhone you're always seeing it work as good as it can. With Android look toward the high end versions and you should be OK. I have the Nexus 5 and completely love it. (Also iOS is just as buggy as Android. This myth that Apple makes perfect working phones is getting old).

Not great, but not terrible. It is missing a lot of apps though. Whenever I see an ad for an app or a game uses an app on the side: WP almost always doesn't have it. In that regard it's pretty shit. But it doesn't lack functionality apps. The ones I used on my Android before are also there on WP (other ones of course made by other people, but work more or less the same way) with a few minor exceptions. That said, there is a lot less to choose from also. If you don't like the two scanner apps that are there, you're out of luck (example for the sake of example... I don't know how many scanner apps there are).

I have a WP and love it, but it still lacks many of the apps. I'm going to be buying the iPhone 5s next week (job related) so we'll see how many of the apps I actually wind up using. It also means I am going to need to install iTunes on my computer for the first time :(

@zevvion: Yea. I have a Blackberry for work, and I fear it's kind of a similar type situation. The two big consumer platform are Android and iOS, and there's a cliff, then there's the rest. As much as people like to trash on iOS and Android, I still wouldn't go with any other options as I feel the apps make the phone experience.

Yeah, well, I got a WP because I was really curious and tired of using the exact same OS every time (Android) and it looked great. Turned out to be a mistake for me, but I guess I know that for next time. I really know what I want from my phone now. One of those things is being completely water proof. Xperia or Galaxy S5 it'll be for me next time.

Android has become the best mobile OS by a long shot, the only reason to go iOS is if you are obsessed with gaming because that platform gets more games.

Nowadays, iOS is functionally and cosmetically the inferior OS. It's simple to a fault, you still can't share between apps properly and its method of notifications (a rather important part for a phone) is poorly implemented compared to Android.

I had iPhones for 3 years, an iPad Retina for nearly 2. I will not be going back to iOS until they actually start innovating again, in the last few releases of iOS they've simply lifted features from Ice Cream Sandwich/Jelly Bean.

Additionally, I gave someone my number by typing it into their phone, upon using their iPhone 5S, it felt like a tiny kid's toy because I haven't used a phone with such a small screen in so long. My phone has a 4.8" screen and it's awesome. I'm not sure if I want a phone as big as a Nnote, but my current phone seems like a sweet spot. You get the benefits of a bigger screen while being able to comfortably use it with one hand. (unless you're a girl)

iPhones have their place, but the outdated OS and tiny screens do not make it feel like a premium product to me.

p.s. SwiftKey.

So go preach that misinformed crap somewhere else, this isn't 2009 anymore, Android has made gigantic leaps since 4.0.

Last Xperia, everything else breaks. Its Fast, great screen, storage